KNON 89.3 FM is a non-profit Community radio station in Dallas, Texas. We celebrated 30 years of broadcasting on July 30th, 2013. To mark this event, we began our "Online History Museum" to collect and archive our amazing story of survival in the 5th largest radio market in the USA. KNON was chosen BEST radio station in Dallas by the Dallas Observer and D Magazine in 2011. We were also picked BEST radio station for music by the Dallas Observer in 2012 and 2014.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Bobby Elliott, 1994

In 1993 station manager Mark McNeill announced he was leaving KNON to take a commercial radio job in Wichita Falls. The Agape Board of Directors interviewed several candidates and chose former commercial broadcaster Bobby Elliott as the next KNON station manager. Elliott became manager on February 9, 1994 and almost immediately caused an uproar. He announced major changes to the program schedule, and during a station meeting challenged volunteers to fight him in the alley. His goals were to make the station more like commercial radio and end the niche programming KNON had relied on for so long. Many long time KNON DJs quit, many more were fired. Many programs were shifted around and hours cut or added. Elliott promised that the station would be moving into the old Texas Theater in Oak Cliff. He promised major corporate support from companies like Nike and Reebock. He promised we would end pledge drive but still double the station's income. None of it ever happened. The uproar within the station was well covered by the local press and pledge drive returns plummeted. By the start of summer it was clear Elliott was leading the station to ruin and he resigned on June 14, 1994.

On Elliott's departure, Agape Board treasurer Sue Turner assumed temporary station manager duties. A few of the DJs who left or were fired were brought back, but most never returned. The next few years were spent rebuilding the volunteer programmer base and tweaking the schedule back to a more normal non-commercial format. It was a slow process but progress was recognized when The Dallas Observer once again named KNON the Best FM Station in 1995.

In late 1995, we received a new broadcast board donated by ABC radio. The studio was once again remodeled and a new broadcast booth was built.